340 



its leaping powers. It is oblong-oval in shape, shining and not pubes- 

 cent; head, thorax, and legs bright red and impunctate; elytra usually 

 bright blue, more rarely greenish-blue, and provided with regular 

 strijie of coarse punctures. Tlie thorax has at its base a large and 

 conspicuous imi^ression which is sharply limited on each side. 



Crcpidodera rufipes, originally described by Linnaeus in 1758, is one 

 of the numerous species of Coleoptera common to Nortli America and 

 Europe. In the latter country it is a common and widely distrib- 

 uted species, but does not appear to occur in the arctic regions. In 

 Xorth America it is known from the States of New York, Pennsylvania, 

 Maryland and Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Tliere are also 

 two specimens in thejSTational Museum marked "Texas," and Dr. Horn 

 in his Synopsis of the Halticini says "it is now widely scattered over 

 the Atlantic region as far west as Iowa." It seems to be absent, how- 

 ever, in the boreal region, and from this foct it may be assumed that 

 the species does not belong to the circumpolar fauna but has been 

 introduced by the agency of man. If this be so, it was imported at 

 or before the beginning of this century, for it is enumerated in the old 

 catalogue of Insects of Pennsylvania, by F. V. Melsheimer, published 

 in 1800, Forty years afterward (in 1847) it was redescribed by the 

 younger ^Melsheimer under the name of HaJtica erythropus (Proc. Ac. 

 Sc. Phila., vol. iii, p. 165). 



As in the case of many other tlea-beetles the imagos of C. rufipes 

 appear to feed upon several different plants which are not necessarily 

 the food plants of the larva. Mr. Letzner, in his list of the Coleoptera 

 of Silesia says (2d edition, j). 414) that the imagos are found " in de- 

 ciduous forests, on Lathyrns rernus^ Malva silvestris, Vicia sepium^ etc.,"' 

 while M. E. Olivier, in his " Faune de I'Allier" (ii, pt. 1, p. 348) simply 

 says, "on Malvaceous plants on dry meadows." Since in the United 

 States the species feeds chiefly on Black Locust, which does not occur 

 in Europe (except as an imported shade tree) it must be inferred that 

 the beetle has changed its food habits upon its arrival in America. 

 Whether or not a corresponding change has taken place in the food 

 habits of the larva can not be ascertained, since the earlier states and 

 the larval habits are still entirely unknown.* 



* Mr. Ed. Ferris found the larva of Crepldodera lineata feeding openly on the leaves 

 and flowers of Erica scoparia in southern France, and gave a detailed description 

 thereof in his ''Nonvelles Fromeuades Eutomologiques " (Ann. Soc. Eut. France, 

 1876, pp. 198-201), huthe says, "Although the species of the old genus Crepldodera are 

 pretty numerous and some of the species very common, yet not a single larva of this 

 genus has ever beeu observed, and the failures of my efforts to find them induce me 

 to believe that none of them save that just described live openly on plants. This 

 peculiarity, in connection with certain structural dift'erences in the imago of C. 

 Uneata appear to justify the erection of the genus Arrhenocoela Foudras for this 

 species." 



